Andy Rubin reveals Android was originally designed as a camera OS

Today Android sits as the most dominant mobile operating system on the planet, but would you believe that the platform’s original concept was aimed at cameras? Andy Rubin revealed the origins of Android as we know at an economic summit in Tokyo earlier this week, saying, “the exact same operating system we built for cameras…became Android for cellphones,” referencing the platforms humble beginnings in April of 2004.

At that time Rubin and company were presenting Android to investors as a smart camera platform that could connect to a home PC and then link up with an “Android Datacenter.” After realizing the opportunity in the camera industry was perhaps a bit small, the creators of Android turned to the growing field of smartphones to repurpose the operating system, keeping much of the Java-based core intact. In 2005 Android was acquired by Google and the rest is history.

Rubin said the goal was always to get Android out to as many people as possible, hence the decision to offer the platform to OEMs free of charge. It’s the reason Android currently sees 1.5 million activations per day and is well on its way to 1 billion total.

As for Andy Rubin, who recently stepped down from his position as Android chief at Google, he still plans to develop products geared towards consumers. What exactly his new work will involve, that still remains a bit of a mystery.

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Now it is being released as part of a growing number of smart cameras. So they have come full circle it would seem

silver_arrow

Will the circle be unbroken…

Sean Royce

uwotm8

Dvrcowboy

What kind of witchcraft is this?

No_Nickname90

Which explains why stock Android has such cool cameras. Photosphere is pretty cool. Gimicky of course, but it’s pretty cool to see a photosphere in a review of a place. But then again, everything in a phone is gimicky, so I can’t single that out.

Sean Royce

Some of these features have barely been in Android since last year. The stock camera in my opinion was never that jam packed with features.

http://twitter.com/YanivC Yaniv C

Who cares? The real question is…. who the hell is picking Andy Rubin’s wardrobe? Millions of dollars and this guy dresses like king of the dorks! Jeeeeez!